Making a sourdough starter from scratch is easier than you think. All you need is flour and water to get it started, then you can make all the delicious sourdough treats – breads, cookies, pizza, and even cinnamon rolls! You may be surprised to see this labeled a “cultural recipe,” but just wait until you find out exactly WHERE sourdough is from! 🙂
Sourdough Stater 101
For the last several years sourdough-making has been all the craze. It started just a few years ago, and it felt like like everyone was in on it. Obviously, as a bread lover I wanted to join the carb club. BUT when I heard it required you to keep a “starter” alive? I immediately lost hope in my sourdough making dreams because I can be a forgetful person sometimes. I’ve killed many houseplants due to forgetting to water them, so I knew I’d kill whatever a sourdough starter was.
What is a sourdough starter?
It’s a live active culture made from fermented flour and water. Like anything fermented, sourdough starters provide lots of bacteria that are good for your gut and health. Carbs never tasted so good!
Where does sourdough come from?
I was honestly pleasantly surprised when I found out that sourdough actually comes from ancient Egypt! So cool, right?! You can learn more about it here!
Who should commit to making sourdough?
Anyone! If you love bread, if you love wow-ing your family and friends with yummy (and beautiful) food, if you like having control over what you eat, and what’s in your food, sourdough making is for you!
How long does it take to make a sourdough starter?
Generally, it takes about a week to create a starter that’s active and usable. In some cases, it can take a bit more than 7-days to get it nice and active.
How do you know when the starter is active and ready to use?
You’ll know it’s ready to use when you feed your starter and within 12 hours it doubles in size and becomes bubbly. To test if a new starter I’ve made is ready, I just take a bit of room temp water in a cup and then put a nickel/quarter size of the starter into the water. If it sinks into the water then I know I need to wait and feed it another time or two, then test it again. If the bit of starter floats on the water, then it’s active enough to use and bake! *shimmy*shimmy*
I’m making a new starter and I have too much! Should I throw some away?
If you have more starter than you have storage or need for, then yes, you can throw some away. It won’t hurt your starter to throw some out – it can actually hurt it to keep too much in a container as it needs to continually be fed to remain active, which means it needs room to grow.
Sourdough Starter From Scratch
Fast forward to today and as much as I wish I could say that I’ve kept my first sourdough starter alive for years, that’d be a lie. I’ve had to make a new starter from scratch quite a few times now (: But thankfully making a starter is UNBELIEVABLY easy!
Once your sourdough starter is ready to begin making fresh sourdough, give these recipes a whirl:
Sourdough Starter From Scratch
Ingredients
- flour, ideally organic, unbleached, all-purpose flour
- water
Instructions
- DAY ONE: Put one cup of flour and one cup of water into a large bowl and stir vigorously. Make sure you stir in all the flour, not letting any dry flour get stuck on the sides of the bowl or clump together in dry balls. Set bowl on the counter, covering with a tea towel or partially cover it with a lid (do not seal shut).Let it sit for 24-hours.flour,, water
- DAY TWO: After 24-hours, take half of the contents in the bowl and throw it away. Add one cup of flour and one cup of water again, and stir vigorously. Cover and let sit for another 24-hours.flour,, water
- DAY THREE, FOUR, AND FIVE: Repeat instructions from day two on day three, day four, and again on day five.flour,, water
- DAY SIX: After 24-hours, take half of the contents in the bowl and throw it away. Add one cup of flour and one cup of water again, and stir vigorously. Cover and let sit for only 12-hours this time.flour,, water
- DAY SEVEN: Repeat instructions from day six. After 12-hours of sitting, your sourdough starter should be complete. You can know your starter is ready if it's bubbly and has doubled in size. You can also do the float test (see notes) to be sure. Now you're ready to start making your favorite bready treats! See recipe ideas in the notes below.flour,, water